BlackRock to Test Blockchain for Custody Bank Partners

Announcements, Blockchain | October 12, 2017 By:

Global investment management firm BlackRock will be testing a blockchain platform for its custody bank partners. Dubbed Aladdin Provider, the platform uses a private blockchain to create more seamless processing between BlackRock and its custodians.

BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink plans to expand the platform beyond BlackRock so that clients can use the platform once testing proves successful.

“We look at technology as a great efficiency provider for investing for custodial assets, for communicating with our custodial clients, for communicating with our employees, for communicating with our clients,” said Fink. “So it is the key element that is going to transform BlackRock. As we now have Aladdin Provider working with the custodial banks, ultimately it’s going to simplify our trading, [and] trade entry compliance working alongside the custodial bank to create so much more efficiency for users across the Aladdin system.”

The Aladdin system is an operating system for investment managers that seeks to connect the information, people and technology needed to manage money in real time. The Aladdin platform combines sophisticated risk analytics with comprehensive portfolio management, trading and operations tools on a single platform to power informed decision-making, effective risk management, efficient trading and operational scale.

BlackRock is an American global investment management corporation based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with $5.7 trillion in assets under management as of July 2017. BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries and clients in 100 countries.